Simmons & Simmons Adaptive introduces us to their Alternative Legal Service Offering in Hong Kong
Simmons & Simmons is one of the latest law firms to establish an alternative legal service offering in Hong Kong – Simmons & Simmons Adaptive. Their flexible resourcing model aims to connect the best lawyers and business professionals with best-fit client assignments. We sat down with Sarah Thompson (Partner and Global Head of Adaptive), Victoria Moore (Hong Kong Resourcing Manager) and Jonathan Hammond (Partner and Head of Asia) to discuss.
What prompted the move to HK?
Sarah:
Adaptive launched in the UK in 2014 and our reason for the initial launch is no different to our reason for setting up in Hong Kong (and why we’re looking at other jurisdictions as well) – our clients struggle with resourcing and increasingly look to their partner law firms to offer a solution.
Simmons & Simmons, as a law firm, no longer just does law. We are expected to be a business partner and to solve many more things for our clients. Adaptive was the brainchild of Jonathan. We had been seeing our clients become leaner, needing to do more with less, and having more project work. You need only to look at the regulatory space and the sheer number of projects over the last five years to really understand that cry for help: “We need quality resources!” We have that same issue in our own firm – how do we access the right people, where and when we need them?
At the same time, we were recognizing that talent was changing. How people want to work, and their need for increased flexibility and control without wanting to compromise on quality was also evolving. These two challenges and changes prompted Adaptive, and it’s been incredibly successful.
We started looking at Asia three years ago when we began hearing from our partners and clients that this struggle to bring in the right resource, as and when needed, was a global issue and not UK-centric. Clients globally were battling to get permanent headcount and expecting to do more with less. However, while we had started thinking about an expansion into Asia, it wasn’t necessarily the right time. The talent pool wasn’t quite there yet, and our clients were still trying to decide how best to handle this situation. I think, though, that COVID-19 accelerated the need and confidence in flexible resourcing in the regions.
Once the decision was made to bring Adaptive to HK, we spent a lot of time listening to our clients in the region and learning about their challenges; their experience of using consultancies, contractors and secondees; and learning from them what they felt worked and what frustrated them. We got some wonderful insight and that allowed us to design a solution that is specific to the region. It really was important to us not to assume we could simply copy something from the UK and paste it here. There are, therefore, some differences between the UK and HK models because they are different markets, and our clients require different support.
What sets Adaptive apart from other alternative legal service providers (ALSPs), especially in this region?
Victoria:
What really sets us apart is our connectivity to the firm. There is so much support from the partnership at Simmons & Simmons and the wider firm for the Adaptive team. Our consultants are interviewed by a Simmons partner and that partner remains involved throughout the whole lifecycle of the engagement. Adaptive is unique in its service offering as it remains partner led. Our partners are highly engaged and see real value in spending time building relationships with our consultants who we see as an extension of our firm.
Our core business model and what we offer is quite different as well. Some of our competitors appear more profit-driven and that’s what they lead with. For us, we are here to solve our clients’ resourcing challenges – that is our number one focus, and it strengthens our relationships with our clients while doing so. We can, therefore, offer the same level of talent but at a more competitive rate and with the full support of the firm.
” “Flexible” is not only about work hours and working from home – it is also about having the flexibility to choose what kind of work you do and how you do it. “
What plans do you have in Asia for growth? Where do you see the opportunities for both clients and consultants?
Sarah:
For us, it’s been a positive start with Victoria being on the ground in Hong Kong since June. It was really important to Jonathan and I that we have a team on the ground in Hong Kong. Other than Victoria, we have an assistant, and we’ll look to expand the team as it grows.
We’ve so far had incredible support from clients and a lot of interest from impressive talent. We already have a number of consultants on assignment with our clients.
First and foremost, we are here to solve our clients’ problems and through this we enhance the firm’s relationships with our valued clients. It’s not about numbers; it’s about quality consultants doing quality work to solve problems that enhance the firm’s relationships. Adaptive is integrated into all the practice groups, and we’re working closely with global relationship teams for Simmons’ clients as well as local partners to understand who their clients are, which are struggling, and how we can help.
We are ambitious. It feels like now is the right time to be here. While currently in Hong Kong, we do have plans to move into Singapore. It’s all very much driven by our clients’ needs.
Despite this focus, it is of course not all about clients – it is also about the consultants who haven’t always felt a high level of support from other ALSPs. We try to treat our consultants as an extension of our firm and ensure they have access to our partners with monthly catchups as well as access and support on hand when they need it. We also offer consultants career development. A lot of our consultants in the UK have been with us for 6-8 years and on multiple assignments. The rise of people seeking to work this way is incredible.
While mentioned above, can you further explore what role Adaptive plays in enhancing the firm’s relationships with clients?
Jonathan:
Victoria was spot on that Adaptive is about growing client relationships, and Sarah’s perspective around our consultant experience, which is crucial for us, is equally important. We don’t just try to fill every single role; we don’t just churn our consultants through assignments. We give a lot of thought to what our clients want and what the consultants want as well.
Adaptive has facilitated all sorts of different conversations with our clients and I think that it has changed their perspective of Simmons to one of a trusted advisor – and as a law firm you want to be just this. What could be more important around resourcing and support than being able to provide both on a quick and flexible basis across different jurisdictions?
“We try to treat our consultants as an extension of our firm and ensure they have access to our partners with monthly catchups as well as access and support on hand when they need it.”
Sarah and Victoria can go speak to our clients and have conversations that produce tremendous insight. Our consultants, too, can give us insights into on-the-ground pressures, client priorities, and what our clients are seeing come down the line. It has been a tremendous enabler for Simmons. We can go in and talk about what projects or events clients have coming up, and how we can best support those and assist them. So we might go in as Adaptive, but perhaps the solution isn’t Adaptive in which case we can just as easily bring the problem into Simmons.
We’ve had great assistance from our consultants who want to be brand ambassadors for Simmons. They come back with great insights, instructions and leads. It’s all been very positive, very transparent.
Finally, can the use of flexible resourcing aid an organisation to achieve diversity and inclusion goals?
Sarah:
Diversity and inclusion are incredibly important for Simmons and for our clients, and it’s rightly been a key focus of ours. Adaptive offers our clients access to new and diverse talent that they can bring in for defined periods of time. You’re bringing in different people with different ways of working, schools of thought and backgrounds. Just by having consultants, you’re impacting the diversity of your organisation, and we know that having a diverse workforce impacts an organisation’s profitability in a positive way.
Annually in the UK, we have a diversity survey of our whole Adaptive talent pool, not just consultants out on assignment, and we benchmark ourselves against the firm’s targets. If there are issues flagged, we really commit ourselves to addressing them. We are also working with our clients to report on the diversity of our consultants coming through and support our clients on their diversity targets as well.
From the consultant point of view, it’s been quite interesting as many of our consultants over the last 2 years have become more comfortable with providing us with further insight as to why they choose the consultant route. Some of them are neurodiverse and flexible working allows them to work in ways that benefit them from a health and wellness perspective without having to leave the law. “Flexible” is not only about work hours and working from home – it is also about having the flexibility to choose what kind of work you do and how you do it. Often it is assumed that consultants choose this way of working simply as a lifestyle choice, but this isn’t often the reason. Working flexibly allows many diverse individuals more options which has impacted them being able to continue their career as a lawyer.
Jonathan:
Another consequence that we perhaps didn’t predict, is that we’ve ended up with a multi-generational talent pool as we can extend people’s careers by giving them what they need at different points in life. The Adaptive model facilitates this by asking: How do you want to work? How much do you want to do? Where is work situated as part of your life at the moment? It can keep experience within our clients, the law firm, and the industry as a whole, and that’s tremendously interesting.
Sarah Thompson, Partner, Head of Adaptive
Sarah.James@simmons-simmons.com
+44 20 7825 4096
Sarah is an innovative, collaborative, and ambitious individual with a proven track record of business leadership and developing and delivering smarter solutions for clients. Sarah is passionate about helping clients to re-imagine how Adaptive engages with legal talent and assisting talented legal professionals to work flexibly
Jonathan Hammond, Adaptive Relationship Partner, Head of Asia
Jonathan.Hammond@ simmons-simmons.com
+852 2583 8333
Jonathan is the Asia Regional Head based in Simmons & Simmons Hong Kong office. Jonathan is a partner in the Financial Markets group specialising in structured products and derivatives. He has advised sell and buy side clients on a variety of asset backed structures and synthetic transactions. In 2018 Jonathan completed a secondment to a major investment bank and in 2019 he worked in the Frankfurt office of the firm..
Victoria Moore, Adaptive Resourcing Manager HK
Victoria.Moore@ simmons-simmons.com
+852 2583 8395
Victoria is a forward thinking, driven and empathetic individual with a strong focus on client service. Having worked for leading Alternative Legal Service Providers in the UK and, most recently, Asia, Victoria is skilled at building lasting relationships with clients and legal consultants, helping them to build successful portfolio careers.
Click on the image below to read more articles from Dec 2022 issue of IHC Magazine including Legal Innovation and Technology
